DEDHAM – Prosecutors have dropped their case against four men charged in connection with a violent home invasion in Weymouth during which police say five intruders brandished handguns and fled with a stash of marijuana and cash.

An assistant district attorney said new evidence cast doubt on whether the men were involved in the crime, and now the mother of one of them says the state owes her family an apology.

“I have to be grateful that justice prevailed that my son got out, but I don’t think it should have happened in the first place,” said Lelia Faulk of Weymouth, adding that her son Hewnal Faulk spent 100 days behind bars before being released. “They can’t bum rush his life and then say it’s dismissed. I feel like there should be an apology.”

In a brief hearing in Norfolk County Superior Court on Monday, prosecutors told a judge they are dropping charges of home invasion, armed robbery while masked and intimidation to steal from a depository against Faulk, 20; Markus Souza, 19; Justin Belfiore, 20; and Decari Allengeter, 21.

Faulk, Souza and Belfiore live in Weymouth. Allengeter lives in Mansfield.

They were arrested in February after police said five masked men barged into a home on Rosalind Road. Two of the intruders brandished handguns in front of a 41-year-old woman and her 9-year-old son who were home at the time, according to a police report. One of the intruders also kicked a 20-year-old woman in the stomach, put a gun to her head and demanded the combination to a safe, which turned out to be unlocked.

The intruders stole several ounces of marijuana and some cash from the safe, which belonged to the older woman’s 20-year-old son, who was not home at the time, according to the report.

The victims in the home invasion identified Souza, Faulk, Belfiore and Allengeter as the men who were in the house, according to police. Investigators never recovered any guns or the stolen marijuana or money. They also never identified a fifth suspect.

But Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney Jessica Healy said an investigation uncovered evidence that cast doubt on the case.

“Basically there was information that was received during the course of the investigation that cast doubt on the viability of the charges against the four men,” she said.

The Plymouth County district attorney’s office was brought in to handle the case because of a conflict of interest involving one of the defendants in Norfolk County, Healy said. She said she didn’t know what the conflict was or which defendant it involved.

Healy referred further questions about the ongoing investigation into the home invasion to the Norfolk County district attorney’s office. A spokeswoman for that office said she did not have information on the case.

Page 2 of 2 - Outside the courtroom, Souza and Faulk, flanked by family members, said they were innocent.

“I’m still looking for a little bit of justice,” Souza, who spent 90 days in jail, said. “I’m still kind of traumatized from being in jail. It doesn’t make any sense at all.”

Souza’s mother, Heather Souza, said she was relieved.

“It’s been a long process,” she said. “I knew all along he didn’t do it.”

Christian Schiavone may be reached at cschiavone@ledger.com or follow him on Twitter @CSchiavo_Ledger.